Gene Expression Profiling of Tumor Microenvironment during Breast Cancer Progression

To better understand the role of tumor microenvironment in breast cancer progression, we combined laser capture microdissection and microarray analysis to provide a comprehensive catalog of gene expression changes in both tumor and tumor-associated stroma. Keywords: cancer vs. normal We used LCM to isolate the epithelial and stroma compartments separately from each of 14 fresh frozen primary breast cancer biopsies. In the epithelial compartment, we captured normal (N) and malignant (DCIS or IDC or both where available) epithelium from each tissue slide. In the stroma compartment, we captured both normal stroma away from the malignant lesion (NSS) and the DCIS-associated stroma (ISS) and/or IDC-associated stroma (INVS) whenever possible.